Comments:

After the Civil War Angel Island became a major recruit-processing center for the army.   Not until 1881 did the army have anything like modern day boot camps, and soldiers were expected to learn their duties on the job.  All recruits of the period could expect from a depot like Angel Island was to be issued uniforms and be taught a few basic parade-ground formations.  As the units Angel Island supplied with reinforcements were scattered across the western states, recruits would sometimes wait for weeks before transport could be arranged for them to join their regiments.  Wallace, like the other recruits in the post cemetery, would have died before he ever had a chance to join his unit.

Wallace was to have joined the 1st United States Cavalry.  Originally created as the "Regiment of Dragoons" in 1833 (later the 1st Dragoons), the regiment was redesignated as cavalry early in the Civil War.  After the war the regiment was sent west, arriving in San Francisco in January of 1866.  The only other member of the 1st Cavalry interred in the Angel Island Cemetery was Private John Spinner (E297).  Notes taken from the National Archives have Wallace's date of death as 9/24/1869.